Arctic temperatures gripped most of Russia for a fourth day Thursday, pushing the death toll across the frozen country to more than 30 people and even hardy Russians struggled to cope with the big freeze. Electricity use surged to record levels and towns and cities struggled to keep indoor temperatures up as temperatures in Moscow plunged overnight to as low as minus-24 Fahrenheit. Seven people died of exposure in the Russian capital over the previous 24 hours, city emergency officials said, pushing the nationwide death toll from the Siberian cold wave that swept into Moscow late Monday to at least 31. At a zoo in Lipetsk, south of Moscow, director Alexander Osipov said monkeys would be given wine three times day, "to protect against colds," the RIA-Novosti news agency reported. ... http://www.cbsnews.com

The Nepalese authorities say they have arrested scores of opposition leaders and activists ahead of planned pro-democracy demonstrations on Friday. All telephone services in the capital, Kathmandu, were cut off for a time, and mobile phones are still not working. The government has also declared an all-day curfew on Friday. Opposition parties have been planning a big demonstration in Kathmandu on Friday, despite a recent ban on rallies in the city. The indefinite ban on all rallies follows rebel attacks last weekend. The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kathmandu says the arrests and the cutting of phone lines appear to be aimed at foiling Friday's planned rally that was called in protest at government plans for local elections next month. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4626852.stm

Nigeria's government is planning a specific ban on same-sex marriages, with 5 years in jail for anyone who has a gay wedding or officiates at one. Information Minister Frank Nweke told the BBC the government was taking the "pre-emptive step" because of developments elsewhere in the world. "In most cultures in Nigeria, same-sex relationships, sodomy and the likes of that, is regarded as abominable." Homosexual sex is already illegal and in the north offenders can be stoned. Justice Minister Bayo Ojo said the law would also ban "any form of protest to press for rights or recognition" by homosexuals, the AFP news agency reports. 'Unnatural and un-African' Archbishop Peter Akinola, the head of Nigeria's Anglican Church, has been a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage and allowing openly gay men to be priests. President Obasanjo has publicly supported the country's Anglican leadership's stance on homosexuality. "Such a tendency is clearly un-Biblical, unnatural and definitely un-African," ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4626994.stm

Tony Blair is facing calls to make a full statement on how much he knew about the US using UK airports to transport terror suspects. Downing Street says all such cases have now been made public after a leaked memo said "there could be more". The memo advises ministers to avoid detailed questions on "rendition", and stress their anti-terrorist purpose. Critics claim the US routinely flies suspects to secret detention centres where they could be tortured. The memo at the centre of the row, written on 7 December last year and apparently designed to prepare Mr Blair for that day's prime minister's questions, said officials had discovered two cases from 1998 - one accepted and one denied - of US flight requests. It says: "We cannot say that we have received no such request for the use of UK territory. "The papers we have unearthed so far suggest there could be more such cases." ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4626370.stm

France said on Thursday it would be ready to use nuclear weapons against any state that carried out a terrorist attack or used weapons of mass destruction against it. Reaffirming the need for its costly nuclear deterrent, President Jacques Chirac said security came at a price and France must be able to hit back hard at a hostile state's centers of power and its "capacity to act." Chirac's speech pointed to a change of emphasis to underline the growing threat France perceives from terrorism. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1522102

China has announced another rise in public disturbances in 2005, as rapid economic growth continued to spark social unrest. The Public Security Ministry said it handled 87,000 public disturbances last year, a rise of more than 6% on 2004. The figures come amid growing anger at official corruption and several high-profile land disputes between authorities and villagers. China's leaders see social unrest as the biggest threat to their rule. A ministry spokesman said the figure did not refer just to mass protests, but to all criminal cases linked to public disorder, including mob gatherings, obstruction of justice, fighting and trouble-making. Disputed accounts China's official statistics are unreliable. But a BBC correspondent in Beijing, Louisa Lim, says the trend suggests growing social instability in China, as an ever-widening wealth gap leaves many excluded from the country's economic boom. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4627602.stm